“The Sentinels,” Canal+‘s hugely ambitious French TV series blending superhero, steampunk and sci-fi themes into a WWI action drama, has found at home in the U.K.
In a deal with Studiocanal, the BBC has acquired the series, which is produced by Federation Studios France and Esprits Frappeurs and was already simultaneous released by Canal+ last year across more than 30 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Based on the comic book series “Les Sentinelles” by Xavier Dorison and Enrique Breccia (éditions Delcourt), “The Sentinels” was created by Guillaume Lemans in collaboration with Xabi Molia, written by Guillaume Lemans, Molia and Raphaëlle Richet, and directed by Thierry Poiraud and Édouard Salier.
The story takes place at the outbreak of WWI, when a severely wounded soldier named Gabriel Ferraud is selected for a top-secret research program headed by the French Army that aims to create a whole new breed of combatant. After being injected with a mysterious serum, Gabriel is endowed with unprecedented abilities. Now stronger, faster, and more resistant than the average human, he joins an elite unit of augmented soldiers known as the Sentinels. But he is soon confronted with a terrifying reality that could change the course of the war.
The series is produced by Lionel Uzan and Thierry Sorel for Federation Studio France, and Delphine Clot and Guillaume Lemans for Esprits Frappeurs.
Alongside the unprecedented Canal+ rollout, the series has also aired in Australia (SBS), Belgium (BeTV), Benelux (Play Media), Germany (ProSieben), Canada (TV5), Denmark (DR), Greece (NOVA), Portugal (NOS), Spain (Disney), Turkey (Tivibu) and has sold to more than 60 territories worldwide.
“The Sentinels” will premiere in the U.K. exclusively on BBC iPlayer and BBC Four later this year.
Assi Azar is set to host a new celebrity-driven series “Who Wants to Start?” in which a handful of celebrities who share a “defining life moment” sit down together to discuss it on camera.
Each episode will gather five celebrities who have all experienced a life-changing event such as anxiety, divorce, parenthood or grief, to discuss it in front of a studio audience. There is no script and no celebrity will know who else is taking part until they walk onto the set. Other topics include addiction and recovery, body image, illness, betrayal and financial collapse.
Azar, one of Israel’s most prominent TV creator and presenter, will host and moderate. There will also be other devices to keep the conversation flowing, including multiple sealed envelopes in the room which each contain a question or a prompt, plus interactive elements such as quick-fire questions and mini-games. The aim is to build the conversation towards a closing reflection as the group shares what they have taken from the experience.
The show, from Keshet 12, was created by Azar together with Anat Stalinsky (“The A-Talks”) and Keshet Broadcasting. It is conceived as a returnable format.
Assi Azar (Alon Shafransky/Keshet)
“Who Wants to Start?” is produced by Baron Productions. Ido Baron (“Off Road”) is a producer. It is set to premiere later this summer on Israeli network Keshet 12. Keshet are repping global sales for the format, which will launch at this year’s Mipcom.
“Throughout my career, I’ve learned the power of sharing the things we usually keep to ourselves,” said Azar, who is also an LGBTQ+ activist. “Coming out and speaking about my anxiety showed me how not alone we really are—and that’s what inspired ‘Who Wants to Start?.’ It’s a simple idea: we are not alone. And that’s what this show is here to prove.”
Hilik Sharir, CEO of Keshet 12, said: “At Keshet 12, we look for formats that connect with a broad primetime audience while staying true to warmth, humor and real human connection. ‘Who Wants to Start?’ does exactly that—creating meaningful, entertaining television without relying on conflict, and showing well-known personalities in a more open, human way.”
Kelly Wright, Keshet International’s MD of Distribution, added: “‘Who Wants to Start?’ has everything buyers are looking for: a simple, repeatable format with a strong universal hook and genuine emotional payoff. With a changing group of celebrity participants, none of whom know quite what they’re getting into, each episode stays fresh and authentic. The intimacy of the format keeps it cost-efficient, making it compelling content to stimulate broadcaster and platform offerings worldwide.”
Previous Keshet formats that have found success abroad include “Rising Star” (adapted in 17 countries), “Deal With It!” (produced in over 20 territories) and international hit “The Vault” (which aired in 18 markets).
Lionsgate Play has confirmed a second season of “Heated Rivalry” for 2027, alongside a theatrical-first release model for a curated slate of premium Hollywood titles and more than 100 premieres lined up for India in 2026.
The theatrical push, set to begin in September, will see 10–12 titles debut in Indian cinemas before arriving on the platform. Among the films earmarked for that window are Russell Crowe’s “Billion Dollar Spy,” Gerard Butler’s “Empire City,” Robert Pattinson‘s “Primetime,” Mark Wahlberg’s “By Any Means,” and snake creature feature “Titan.”
The wider 2026 lineup is also heavy on high-profile Hollywood talent. Butler returns in “Greenland 2: Migration,” joined by Jason Statham in “Mutiny,” Angelina Jolie in “Couture,” Zac Efron in “Famous,” and Matthew McConaughey in “The Rivals of Amziah King.” The franchise side of the slate grows with “Apollo Has Fallen” and a third season of “Vigil.”
“Over the past few years, we’ve built Lionsgate Play into a destination for bold, high-impact storytelling,” said Rohit Jain, who acquired the platform from Lionsgate earlier this year following an eight-year tenure as its Asia president. “In 2026, we’re delivering on that vision at full scale, with 100+ premieres, returning franchises, and now, the big screen itself under one roof.”
Lionsgate Play operates across eight Asian markets and reaches more than 40 million viewers in India, where it distributes primarily through a B2B2C model via partners including JioHotstar, Airtel Xstream, and Amazon Prime Video Channels. The platform, which focuses on Hollywood content alongside regional originals, operates under a multi-year licensing agreement with Lionsgate covering branding and content.
The Annecy Animation Showcase comes back to Cannes’ Marché du Film for yet another year, shedding light on five promising animated features.
Hailing from Japan, France and Mexico, these ongoing projects bring animation to Cannes, a collaboration between Cannes’ Marché du Film and the Annecy Festival which started in 2019 with an Animation Day and has been growing ever since.
“For Annecy, this Showcase represents a key extension of our commitment to supporting animation beyond the Festival itself, throughout the year,” said Annecy Festival CEO Mickaël Marin.
“Built over time with the Marché du Film, this collaboration allows us to accompany projects at a decisive stage, within one of the most strategic global platforms. It’s both a continuity and an amplification of our mission, in service of the movies,” he added.
“Animation has always had a strong presence in Cannes, particularly within the Official Selection,” underlined Alexandra Zakharchenko, head of industry programs at the Marché du Film. “In recent years, several animated titles presented in the Festival have achieved major international recognition and the role of animation within the broader ecosystem of the Marché du Film has significantly evolved.”
Zakharchenko refers to films such as “Flow,” which debuted its circuit run at Cannes 2024, before meeting global success with audiences and critics alike. “Flow” and its surprise Academy Award win opened a path that other major indie animated titles such as Ugo Bienvenu’s “Arco” and “Little Amelie and the Character of Rain” have since tried as well.
“We are also seeing a growing interest in the potential of animation among professionals already attending Cannes, many of whom are no longer exclusively specialized in animation but are increasingly engaging with it,” continued Zakharchenko. “Private investors also increasingly view animation as an IP-driven business model. Animation travels across territories, platforms and generations, while offering long-term value beyond the screen. As buyers shift from volume to durability, animation stands out as a resilient ecosystem – connecting storytelling, fandom, distribution and global exploitation in ways few other formats can.”
According to Zakharchenko, this shift is something the teams aim to reflect at the Marché du Film itself, where animation is no longer confined to a single Animation Day, but is now embedded across the entire market under the Cannes Animation umbrella, spanning a wide range of formats: from work-in-progress and finished film showcases to panels, workshops, networking events, and its integration into other programs, including targeted co-production meetings.
This year, with Japan the 2026 Country of Honor at the Marché du Film, the teams are also placing a particular focus on Japanese animation, alongside the longstanding strength and global reputation of French animation, a focus that is mirrored in the five projects selected for this year’s Annecy Animation Showcase.
Betrayed during Edo Castle’s reconstruction, legendary craftsman Jingoro Hidari loses his father figure, fiancée, and even his right arm. Forging lethal mechanical prosthetics, he turns grief into vengeance and carves a path to justice with his loyal “Sleeping Cat.”
A pilot film teasing the mindblowing wooden stop-motion technique used to bring “Hidari” to life was shared three years ago by the project teams as proof of concept, along with BTS footage. Per “Hidari’s” team, Japanese animation is still highly recognized across the world for its unique visual language, which gives it the distinct flare. “We wanted to create an entertainment piece that no one has seen before, by merging this world of Japanimation and the technique of stop-motion animation. To do so, breathing life into wood (through wooden puppets animated in stop motion) mirrored both our artistic intentions and the anecdotes surrounding Jingoro Hidari’s life.” The project goes beyond live-action and 2D animation to craft a one-of-a-kind look, with a lot of potential for memorable action sequences.
On a cold winter morning, a battle rages in the surroundings of a small town in the Italian Renaissance. As the military tactics gradually go awry, two movements oppose each other: the desire to win and the desire to live. Written and directed by Annecy-nominated artist Vergine Keaton, “Bataille” draws from Renaissance art to transform a single conflict into a universal allegory.
“Beyond the grand scale,” said Keaton, the film “dissects group dynamics (hierarchy, power, submission) and transcends history to focus on the intimate. And in doing so, ‘Bataille’ weaves a tapestry of individual stories.” With French singer-songwriter Pomme taking part in the project, which is backed by France’s CNC National Film Board, “Bataille’s” distinctive style and universal message have all that it takes to charm international buyers at this year’s showcase.
‘Bataille’
“Les chiens ne font pas des chats,” Alain Gagnol (France, Canada, Belgium)
Producers: Jérôme Duc-Maugé (Parmi les lucioles films), Brice Garnier (Kaïbou Production Inc.), Cédric Iland (UMEDIA)
Language: French; Genre: Drama; Artistic technique: 2D animation with 3D elements; Completion: 2027
Jules and Lola’s life has taken a sad turn after their parents’ death, but their routine is disrupted by their grandmother Jeanne, who turns up with a very special mission: to find a missing teenager. Thanks to their grandmother, they discover an extraordinary family legacy within themselves. With a star-studded French cast including Josiane Balasko as Jeanne, Golshifteh Farahani as Sunny, Philippe Katerine as Bono, Prune Bozo as Lola and Ethan Maury Tragherset as Jules, the latest film from Oscar-nominated writer-director and French animation veteran Alain Gagnol (“A Cat in Paris”) explores the bond between animals and humans, as the latter discover that cats and dogs can actually speak.
“I like to think that the world doesn’t stop at what our eyes can perceive,”, added Gagnol, as he shared details about a story playing with our imagination and moving across genres, from fantasy to road-movie to slapstick to poetry. “I wanted to address a family audience, as I’m convinced that the children’s perception of a film becomes richer with time. But above all, for this new film, I wanted to make them laugh!”
KMBO distributes in France, with Playtime handling international sales. “Les chiens ne font pas des chats,” has already received support from Eurimages, and is set for completion in 2027.
A young chef chasing a lost flavor lands in a ruined city without taste. Saved by Kasumi, his cooking awakens forgotten memories. But a dark force threatens to erase all desire — making his quest the last hope to save both worlds. The project, first revealed by “Pompo: The Cinephile” and “Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack” director Takayuki Hirao in 2024 at the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, Hokkaido, Japan, is a completely original film reuniting the “Pompo” team.
Ryoichiro Matsuo, Yunosuke Uno and Kosuke Arai produce for CLAP studio, which teased “Wasted Chef” as “a unique yet classic Japanese animation that challenges a new genre, combining cooking and science fiction.” Although few details have been made public yet, Crunchyroll previously reported that Hirao’s collaborators Shingo Adachi (character design) and Kenta Matsukuma (music) are working with the director again, after their successful collaboration on “Pompo.”
In a world where insects have gone extinct, Lexi preserves specimens in a collection for her uncle, Dr. Krause, an entomologist. After removing the pin from a rare Attacus atlas moth, she takes it home to hide her mistake, only to discover it has come back to life.
“Insectario” itself is brought to the big screen by established Mexican filmmaker Sofía Carrillo.“Sofía is one of the most distinctive and vibrant voices in animation in Mexico,” said Pimienta Films’ Nicolas Celis, producer of Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma.” “Her work stands out for its visually striking style, imbued with an unsettling and deeply emotional poetics.”
The two-time Ariel Awards winner and Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” team member makes her feature debut with this ambitious, narratively unique and sensitive film, already selected for Ventana Sur and the Quirino Awards Co-Production Forum, and backed by Mexican National Fund, Spain and Ibermedia Next.
Both awards will be presented by Prince Albert II of Monaco during the event’s 65th edition, taking place June 12–16 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
“We are thrilled to honor Kurt Russell and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas. Their exceptional careers, spanning both film and television, perfectly reflect the artistic excellence and international perspective. These awards celebrate two remarkable talents who have made a lasting impact on the global audiovisual landscape,” Cécile Menoni, executive director of the festival, stated.
Scott Thomas will be honored during the opening ceremony on June 12. Most recently seen in the acclaimed series “Slow Horses,” the actress made her directorial debut with “My Mother’s Wedding,” which she wrote, directed and starred in.
“I am deeply honored to receive this recognition in Monaco, a place that has long celebrated artistic excellence with such grace,” Scott Thomas said.
Russell, who will receive his award during the closing ceremony on June 16, has recently returned to television with “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” and will next appear in the highly anticipated series “The Madison.”
“It is a great honor to be selected for this distinguished award, and I very much look forward to spending time with His Serene Highness Prince Albert. It has been a long time,” Russell said.
The Crystal Nymph Award has previously been presented to international talent including Michael Douglas, Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland, Morgan Freeman and Robin Wright.
The line, spoken by a Kuwait-based meteorologist in Jacqueline Zünd’s “Heat,” anchors a film that examines global warming not through explanation but through what the Swiss filmmaker describes as “a sensory experience.”
Premiering in the main competition at Visions du Réel, Switzerland’s leading documentary film festival, “Heat” immerses the viewer in environments where extreme temperatures are entirely reshaping the way people live and work, exposing stark inequalities as the wealthy retreat into air-conditioned worlds, leaving those who serve them to endure the extremes.
Shot across the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Egypt, the film shifts between a handful of characters, including a delivery driver on 12-hour shifts in scorching urban landscapes, a Kenyan woman working in a Dubai ice lounge, a real estate agent who brings ice and food to stray cats, and the meteorologist who reflects on how daily life has changed as temperatures rise.
The film grew out of Zünd’s fiction feature “Don’t Let the Sun,” which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival last year. The two were developed in parallel, each feeding into the other.
“While researching my fiction film, I found so many interesting details about the subject that it felt like an invitation to make a documentary,” she tells Variety.
In “Don’t Let the Sun,” entire societies shift to living at night – an idea inspired by real working conditions in the Persian Gulf. “There are construction workers who already live at night because it’s too hot during the day,” she explains. “I pushed that idea further in my fiction work: what if our entire lives were reversed?”
Making the documentary, she says, she found that this imagined future is already taking shape. “I was writing about a dystopia,” she adds. “And then I found this dystopia in real life.”
Gaining access to these environments proved challenging, says Zünd, not only due to temperatures sometimes exceeding 50 degrees Celsius, but also because companies were reluctant to participate and filming conditions in the region are tightly controlled.
Filming was done with a minimal crew, sometimes without formal authorization, particularly when shooting inside the delivery driver’s shared accommodation.
This scene offers only a partial view, Zünd notes. “This one was actually a nice camp compared to the others – some are horrible places, where you have 10 to 15 men in one room without proper air.”
The shoot also drew attention from authorities. While filming in Dubai, members of the crew were briefly detained and questioned before being released. Zünd says they were not given any explanation for the questioning, which was treated as routine.
The film’s striking, highly stylized visual language was developed in collaboration with longtime collaborator, cinematographer Nicolai von Graevenitz. The goal, says Zünd, was for the viewer to “feel” the unbearable heat.
“I always want to translate states visually,” she says. “Not through text or dialogue, but through something physical with images and sound – like a cinematic mirage.”
Early footage shot in extreme temperatures failed to convey the sensation Zünd had experienced on location. “We were filming in 50 degrees, but it didn’t look hot at all,” she recalls.
That realization led her to focus more on sound early on in the edit. “The editor was working a lot on levels, on winds – ‘Does this sound hot or not?,’” she explains. “There are a lot of uncomfortable sounds and we had to make sure they were not too uncomfortable and wouldn’t drive the viewers out of the cinema theater,” she jokes.
Visual strategies also play a key role. The film opens with real mirages filmed near Aswan in Egypt, where atmospheric conditions produce optical distortions. Zünd sought out the location specifically. “I wanted to translate heat visually for the opening of the film – I wanted something powerful,” she says.
Later in the film, sequences shot on Super 8 introduce what she describes as a temporal shift. “It’s a nostalgia of the present,” she explains. “As if we are remembering today from the future.”
For Zünd, the decision to focus on sensation reflects her wish to engage with audiences suffering from climate fatigue. “People are tired of being told what’s happening,” she says. “So I wanted to approach it in a different way.”
“Heat” will premiere in the international competition at Visions du Réel on April 20. Produced by Louis Mataré for Lomotion AG in co-production with Zünd’s Real Film, the documentary is backed by ARTE and SFR (Swiss Radio and Television). Sales are handled by Taskovski Films.
The local horror-thriller “Salmokji : Whispering Water” retained its position at the top of the South Korean box office during the weekend of Apr. 17–19.
According to data from KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, the film earned $3.3 million from 472,121 admissions, maintaining a commanding 50% share of the weekend revenue. Directed by Lee Sang-min and starring Kim Hye-yoon and Lee Jong-won, the film follows a road-view camera crew that encounters terrifying supernatural events at a remote reservoir. Since its launch, the Showbox-distributed title has reached a cumulative gross of $10.2 million from 1,461,849 admissions.
“Project Hail Mary” held steady in second place, earning $1.3 million over the weekend. Starring Ryan Gosling, the film has now reached a cumulative gross of $17.5 million from 2,298,106 admissions since its Mar. 18 opening.
In third place, “The King’s Warden” added $712,905 to its record-breaking total. With 104,955 admissions over the three-day period, the film’s cumulative attendance now stands at 16.5 million. While it has slowed significantly in its eleventh week, the historical drama continues to extend its record as the second most-watched film in Korean history, trailing only “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” (17.61 million). Its cumulative revenue has reached $108.6 million.
The identity drama “My Name” debuted in fourth place, earning $380,515 from 60,953 admissions. Directed by veteran filmmaker Chung Ji-young and starring Yeom Hye-ran and Shin Woo-bin, the film is set in 1998 and follows a boy named Young-oak who struggles with his feminine name and complex identity at a testosterone-heavy boys’ school, while his mother Jeong-sun (Yeom) begins to confront long-repressed memories of the 1948 Jeju April 3 Uprising. As Young-oak navigates school violence, his mother’s trauma regarding the historic massacre and state crackdown resurfaces, forcing both to find their place in a society still reckoning with its violent past. Since its Apr. 15 release, the film has grossed $611,162. The film played at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.
Animation “Goat” debuted in fifth place, earning $114,641 and its cumulative gross stands at $115,563.
Miyazaki Hayao classic “Kiki’s Delivery Service” re-entered the charts in sixth place following a specialty re-release, earning $140,117. It was followed by the action-thriller “Shelter” in seventh place, which grossed $41,752. Since its Apr. 15 debut, it has earned $71,594. American action-thriller “Normal” opened in eighth place with $34,259.
Rounding out the top 10 were a re-release of “The Truman Show” in ninth place with $48,875, and the Japanese sports anime “Haikyu!!: The Dumpster Battle” in tenth with $47,969.
The overall market collective gross for the weekend was $6.6 million, down from last week’s $8.01 million.
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.
With its popular $25/month “Essential” package, Philo has long been one of the best values in streaming, when it comes to OTT television. Subscribers get access to more than 70 live TV channels and 130+ on-demand streaming channels for the under-$30 price point, with the ability to livestream shows and movies on up to three devices.
Now, the San Francisco-based streamer is pitching a new “Bundle+” package that adds HBO Max and Discovery+ to the lineup for a new price of $33 monthly.
The expanded offerings launched last fall, and was formerly known as “Philo Core.” Current Philo subscribers automatically had HBO Max and Discovery+ added to their accounts. New users, meantime, can snag the deal at Philo.com.
The $33 price point includes access to 70+ live TV channels including A&E, AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV, Lifetime and MTV, plus access to the ad-supported tiers of HBO Max and Discovery+ for on-demand content. Philo already offers AMC+ at no additional charge.
On their own, an HBO Max subscription starts at $10.99 and Discovery+ starts at $5.99, so you’re saving yourself a few bucks by getting them as part of the Philo bundle.
You can use Philo to stream shows like “Euphoria” and “Hacks” on HBO Max, along with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” on MTV, the new season of “Dr. Pimple Popper” on TLC, “Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta” on VH1 and more.
Subscribers also get access to more than 130 free streaming channels, and more than 75,000 on-demand TV shows and movies to watch online on your computer, tablet, phone or smart TV (via the Philo app).
Philo’s plans include unlimited DVR so you can record content to watch back later, and you can stream on three devices at a time (note: Philo lets you create up to ten profiles per account though you can only have three simultaneous streams).
Philo is one of the few streamers that offers both live TV and on-demand content in one package, with the company hailing it as “an integrated, unified experience” (while Hulu + Live TV also offers live TV streaming and Hulu’s on-demand library, their monthly price is increasing to $90/month). Philo adds that the “HBO Max library brings appointment viewing and cultural moments, while Discovery+ delivers the deep catalog engagement that complements our audience preferences perfectly.”
Sign up for Philo’s new package here for just $33. You can also test out the $25 “Essential” service with a seven-day free trial here.
The local drama “It’s OK” maintained its position at the summit of the China box office during the April 17–19 weekend, earning RMB19.7 million ($2.9 million), according to data from Artisan Gateway.
Produced by China Film and directed by Yang Lina, the film features Wen Qi and Qin Hailu in a story centering on a young woman whose life is disrupted by the sudden arrival of her mother as she prepares for an urgent medical procedure. The production has now reached a cumulative total of $23.7 million.
Columbia Pictures’ “Project Hail Mary” moved up to second place in its fifth weekend, taking in $2.2 million for a total of $37.1 million.
The romantic drama “Nobody But You 2” debuted in third place, earning $2.1 million over its two-day opening weekend. Produced by Zhonglian Jinyi and directed by Chen Chen, the film serves as a sequel to the 2023 romance. The plot follows a protagonist who meets a kindred spirit and travels to the Daliang Mountains to heal old wounds and bring hope back to her hometown.
Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” moved to fourth place, adding $2 million for a cumulative total of $17.2 million.
Rounding out the top five, horror-thriller “The Caged Butterfly” earned $1.9 million, bringing its total to $10.6 million. Produced by Ultra Comedy and directed by Hao Han, the film stars Li Meng, Liu Siwei, and Jiang Zhuojun. The story is set within the notorious Butterfly Mansion villa. The plot follows a physiotherapy therapist and a greedy schemer who move into the haunted estate, only to be plagued by bizarre events and a life-or-death game involving a woman in a red dress and a distorted, eyeless boy.
The frame continues an exceptionally slow period for the market, with the overall weekend gross of $17.8 million marking one of the lowest collective takes of the year.
The 2026 year-to-date revenue stands at $1.86 billion, down 49.8% from the same period in 2025.
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from “America My Dream,” Season 3, Episode 2 of “Euphoria,” now streaming on HBO Max.
A funny thing has happened to Sydney Sweeney since the second season of “Euphoria” aired. She became one of the biggest stars in the world.
She’s not alone in that, among her HBO castmates. Since 2022, when the teen drama signed off for what would become a four-year hiatus, Zendaya has proven herself a reliable anchor for both sophisticated dark comedies like “Challengers” and “The Drama” and blockbusters such as “Dune” and the upcoming “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” Jacob Elordi, meanwhile, has just this year been nominated for an Oscar for “Frankenstein” and led “Wuthering Heights.” But Sweeney’s fame has had a bit of an edge. And “Euphoria,” now back on the air, isn’t merely allowing the actress to do her best work in years; it’s playing off of the by-now familiar Sweeney image in sharp and intriguing ways.
In the time-jumped third season, Sweeney’s Cassie has gotten what she always wanted. Elordi’s Nate has chosen her, and the two are engaged. Her happily-ever-after, though, comes with complications: In order to finance the dream wedding she believes she deserves — and, possibly, for reasons lying closer to kink than to pragmatism — Cassie has taken up a sideline as an OnlyFans model. Performing for her unseen audience in states of undress and role-playing characters including a subservient dog, Cassie seems, for once, as if she has never, ever been happier.
All of which exists in counterpoint to the past few years of Sweeney’s life in public. Sweeney is unabashed about leveraging her appearance and form both in art and in advertisements; her much-discussed “good jeans” campaign for American Eagle played off of the idea that the viewer is ogling Sweeney, while her deal with soapmaker Dr. Squatch to sell soap purportedly containing her bathwater took the same premise to a certain endpoint. Seizing the means of production for herself and making, rather than merely pitching, a product, Sweeney came up with a line of lingerie — a brand that she wears in her puppy play scene on “Euphoria.”
Observing Sweeney’s career and interviewing her, I’ve been consistently struck by her frank understanding of what Hollywood wants of her, and her ability to deliver it. (In her 2023 Variety cover story, Sweeney said that she asks “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson to amp up Cassie’s mania: “Give me more. I’m going to show you what I have. There’s so much to this girl.”) Up to this point, though, Sweeney’s recent career has been operating on two tracks. In ads, she contorts herself into an object of fantasy; in movies, she’s often disarmingly low-key, particularly in her 2025 offerings. In “The Housemaid,” which turned into a zeitgeist smash over the holidays last year, Sweeney plays a woman who is tamped-down by the script’s design. Her Millie is a meek service employee in the home of two vastly more emotionally labile creatures (played by Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar); when Sweeney finally gets to blow up, late in the film, it’s cathartic, and a reminder of just how much she’s been holding in reserve.
Sweeney similarly cedes the fireworks to basically every other member of the ensemble of last year’s undersung survival drama “Eden”; Ana de Armas and Jude Law get to play grand and operatic emotions while Sweeney’s Margret, a mild-mannered woman of faith, grits her teeth. And Sweeney’s bid for awards attention with the boxing drama “Christy” forewent “Rocky”-style inspiration in favor of a sort of haunted naturalism. Festival-goers responded, but the film proved perhaps too dour for audiences, and for the Academy. Its great triumph may have been as a calling card for the future: Working as an executive producer and freed from the demand to make a crowd-pleaser, this was the kind of work Sweeney wanted to do. The ads, for months prior to “Christy” the headline about Sweeney, were in service of a more interesting project.
That project continues with a role that, now, brings together Sweeney’s two disparate personas, as actress and as object. And the show that brought Sweeney to fame continues to know just how to use her. Sweeney’s ability to inhabit flatness and quiet, so present in all of her work last year, is a part of the “Euphoria” palette, too: People forget that, after fantasizing about screaming at her friends in the Euphoria High bathroom, Cassie goes eerily silent. It’s this studied blandness that makes Cassie’s emotional eruptions all the more pronounced.
But “Euphoria,” too, is archly aware of Sweeney’s past few years. On the most literal of levels, a woman known for pitching herself as the product playing a camgirl is a joke that lands. But it’s the joy and brio that Sweeney brings to Cassie that bring it to the next level. Cassie struggled through high school with trying to identify her real self; to return once more to the bathroom scene, perhaps the show’s most famous sequence, it’s why she dressed up like an extra from “Oklahoma!” Maybe that could have been the real her — or it was, for a day. Cassie, like so many of us, ultimately defines herself by the way that she is seen.
Sometimes, that definition happens by identifying what Cassie doesn’t want. In the season’s second episode, when her beloved fiancé insists she shut down her OnlyFans, Cassie’s eyes flare with a barely controlled anger, before she catches herself. And earlier in the episode, Cassie’s conversation with Maddy (Alexa Demie) has an explosive charge. Cassie and Maddy had, earlier in the series, been opposing sides of a love triangle, competing for the attentions of Nate; Cassie has notionally won, and is choosing, in conversation with her former friend and rival, to be as magnanimous as she can. She ought to have asked for Maddy’s blessing, Cassie declares, and she regrets it, although her romance was unstoppable. “What Nate and I were feeling for each other was obviously real,” she says over a poolside Aperol spritz. “Otherwise we wouldn’t be getting married.”
Sweeney delivers the line with the kind of naiveté only a shrewd performer can deploy: One can see that Cassie is willing herself to believe this, and casting herself in a grand drama of love and friendship. “I feel like I found the love of my life, at the expense of the other love of my life,” she declares, trailing off theatrically. Yes, Cassie wants to be seen as hot by men who are willing to pay for the privilege; she also wants to be seen as lovable by Maddy. Does Cassie truly believe that she ought to have asked for Maddy’s permission to get married? Well, she wants to be the kind of person who would believe that — and that’s good enough.
This is high-wire acting of a sort that’s less noisy than some of Sweeney’s past “Euphoria” work, although Sweeney and Demie get to some kooky places as their time together on screen goes on. (Cassie, pleading for Maddy’s help to improve her OnlyFans, bugs her eyes as she declares she might be able to become “a big fish in a big pond.”) But it’s crafty and resourceful work by a performer who — unlike the character she’s playing — seems truly to know herself. And it unites, at last, all the ways we see Sweeney into one complicated, compelling package.
